Many of you will know of the New Zealand Spinal Trust and their wonderful team. But have you checked out their website? There's so much on there, including 'Wheelie Good TIps'!
With support from people who truly understand, someone with a spinal cord impairment (SCI) can learn to meet challenges and embrace new opportunities, participate fully in their community and squeeze every drop out of a life that can be well lived.
The New Zealand Spinal Trust (NZST) are the people who offer this support – through the Peer and Whānau Support service, the Vocational Rehabilitation team, and the Resource Centre. They have been doing so for over 25 years, working with people at both Burwood Spinal Unit, Christchurch and Auckland Spinal Rehabilitation Unit. Our admin team is based at Burwood Hospital.
Their mission is to empower people with SCI and their whānau to embrace positive futures. They provide support and information services across NZ to help people overcome challenges, create strong networks, and pursue opportunities following their spinal impairment. They support people to take ownership of their own rehabilitation.
The NZST’s Peer & Whānau Support team have lived experience – all have an SCI, all use wheelchairs, all have been through the process. Their Whānau Peer Support person’s husband is in a wheelchair. They know the ins and outs of living day-to-day in a chair and can share their tips, but more importantly they are truly living positive lives. This lived experience is invaluable as an inspiration, and vital source of information and emotional support for not only the person with the SCI but their whānau and friends too – an SCI affects more than just the individual.
Their Vocational Rehabilitation team is a mix of those with and without SCI, and provides realistic, practical support to return to work, investigate new possibilities, research training options, reassure, and demonstrate that work is not only possible with an SCI – it’s just part of life. Prior to NZST’s early intervention Vocational Rehabilitation programme, less than 13% of people with an SCI returned to work. Now, recent exit surveys have over 90% of their clients stating they feel confident that they will be able to work!
The Resource Centre is a treasure trove of information for the person with the SCI, their whānau and friends, their carers … even their therapists and nurses. It holds a unique and comprehensive collection of resources on disability and rehabilitation. The team in the resource centre can help with those important questions about what having an SCI entails. Also available is computer skills training as well as the opportunity to borrow equipment e.g tablets in order to use social media, zoom and so on. They have produced world class publications and multimedia including ‘Back on Track’ for SCI rehabilitation and ‘Head Space’ for brain injury and stroke.
Check out a Wheelie Good Tip here.
Check out the NZST website here.